Covid-19: USM conducts online lectures

CORONAVIRUS | Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) began conducting online lectures, from yesterday, in an effort to mitigate the spread of Covid-19, which has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Its vice-chancellor Prof Faisal Rafiq Mahamd Adikan (above) said the students would be informed on details of the online learning by the dean of their respective schools soon.

"With the shift, lecturers and students will certainly raise several questions. The move is among the 16 initiatives that have been implemented to safeguard the well-being and safety of the university community to curb the spread of Covid-19," he said in a statement.

Faisal Rafiq said USM had also set up a crisis committee, especially for Covid-19, for prevention and management of the disease while the university's Pusat Sejahtera has begun distributing sanitisers at lecture halls but the stock would only last until the end of April.

All seminars, workshops, gatherings and visits which have been scheduled will have to be postponed until further notice.

"In the event of a meeting involving over 25 people, which cannot be avoided, Pusat Sejahtera will be mobilised to scan body temperature and take other preventive measures," he said.

Faisal Rafiq said students and USM staff are prohibited from going abroad on official matters, adding that the university has also called for all domestic official trips to be postponed and replaced with other alternative measures, such as working via online communication.

For unofficial or personal trips, USM urged the university's community to seek possibilities of postponing their travel plans.

- Bernama